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Jul 28, 2010 at 12:01 AMJul 28, 2010 at 11:20 PM

As technology advances at lightning speed, colleges are working to help students learn in a new way.

Erika Enigk

As technology advances at lightning speed, colleges are working to help students learn in a new way. College students are already active users of new technology and expect to see it in the classroom, said Vanna Pianfetti, the assistant dean of learning technologies for the College of Education at the University of Illinois. Check out a few ways that colleges are incorporating technology in the classroom:

Podcasts

Some professors record downloadable audio programs for students to listen to outside of normal class time, which gives more time for questions during class.

“The classes could become … more of a flow of conversation,” Pianfetti said.

Other times, a professor will ask students to download a podcast of something like a congressional trial, for example, to add to the readings and other resources they use.

Videoconferencing/Skype

Scheduling a guest speaker can be cost-prohibitive or hard to fit into busy schedules. But with videoconferencing technology, a professor can invite a noted colleague or, perhaps, an author whose works the students have been reading, to speak to the class.

“These are students that are already Skypeing to their friends that are at other colleges, that are studying abroad,” Pianfetti said.

While the technology doesn’t wow them, it does give them an opportunity to see it used in a professional setting and to use it as more than a social tool.

Online courses

Many colleges are not only incorporating online elements into live classes (such as posting a syllabus and homework assignments on the Internet), but creating entire degree programs that students complete online. Working professionals can earn their master’s degrees without having to quit their jobs.

A convenient way to get a degree, this type of program also provides technology training for the students, Pianfetti said. By taking a course online, students have access to technology they can someday take into the professional world, and training resources to help them use it.